title: Neuroendocrine measures in psychiatric patients: course and outcome with ECT.
abstract: Measures of neuroendocrine function--plasma cortisol and its response to dexamethasone, and plasma thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and its response to thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH)--were employed in 50 hospitalized male veteran psychiatric patients with diagnoses of unipolar or bipolar melancholia, secondary depression, or schizophrenia. Of 20 cases of unipolar melancholia, 17 (85%) exhibited hypercortisolism; 14 (70%) failed to suppress plasma cortisol after dexamethasone; and 4 (31%) of 13 tested had an abnormal TSH response to intravenous TRH. Two patients with secondary depression also exhibited hypercortisolism; no other patients evinced abnormal neuroendocrine test results. These measures were repeated in 14 unipolar depressed patients after a course of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Improvement in psychopathology was directly related to normalization of measures of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) function. The TSH response to TRH was not systematically altered. After a followup period of 1 to 9 months, there was a good correlation between the measures of HPA function and the clinical outcome. These findings encourage further study of HPA function measures as outcome criteria for depressed patients receiving ECT.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000628:therapy; D003863:Depression / Q000628:therapy; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000628:therapy; D003907:Dexamethasone; D004565:Electroconvulsive Therapy; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000628:therapy; D013972:Thyrotropin / Q000097:blood; D013973:Thyrotropin-Releasing Hormone
chemical_list: D013973:Thyrotropin-Releasing Hormone; D003907:Dexamethasone; D013972:Thyrotropin; D006854:Hydrocortisone